With the participation of NGOs and many local societies in Gaza City hundreds of people with special needs staged a protest on Monday in front of the United Nations office against the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip raising slogans saying “I have the right to live.”
Director of the rehabilitation program in the Medical Relief Society Mustafa Abed told the PIC reporter “The protest was to express the rights of disabled people especially with the absence of the Palestinian law No. (4) 1999 and the International Convention for the people with special needs.”
He held the Palestinian Authority responsible for the law’s invalidation which deprived thousands of disabled Palestinians of their basic legal rights.
Abed called on the international community to pressure the Israeli occupation authority to lift the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and let disabled people enjoy their basic rights especially the rights of work education and entertainment.
Spokesperson of the people with special needs in Gaza Yusuf Abu Araba told the PIC reporter “We have the ability to work in several areas. Why do they deny us work?”
The world marks the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3rd December each year since it was adopted by the United Nations in 1992.
